Richard Cuming (1777–1870) started his collecting life when he was only five with some fossils and a coin that had been given to him by a family friend. That ignited a passion for collecting, which lasted for his lifetime. He made his first significant purchases in 1806 at the sale of the Leverian Museum. His interests covered geology, scientific equipment and animalia.[2] The collection was bequeathed to the people of Southwark by his son, Henry Syer Cuming, in 1902, and the museum opened in 1906.[3] As described in Cuming's will, it comprised "My Museum illustrative of Natural History, Archaeology and Ethnology with my coins and medals and... other curios".

The museum galleries were moved from the first floor of the Newington Public Library to the building next door, the former Walworth Town Hall, in 2006. That made the museum much more accessible. The former town hall is Grade 2 listed and an interesting vestry hall of the 1860s.

Also of interest is that at the end of this block of buildings, on Larcom Street, Charles Babbage, the Victorian mechanical computer pioneer, was born in 1791 although the original house has been demolished. A blue plaque records his birth.

On 25 March 2013, a fire seriously damaged the Walworth Town Hall. The collections suffered only a very small loss, but the museum galleries were very severely affected. Around 98% of objects on display at the time of the fire were recovered and are now safely stored awaiting a solution to the display of the collections and public access to them.[4]

1.
A215 road
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The A215 is an A road in South London, starting at Elephant and Castle and finishing around Shirley. It runs through the London Boroughs of Lambeth, Southwark and Croydon, beginning as Walworth Road, the A215 becomes Camberwell Road—much of which is a conservation area—after entering the former Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell. Crossing the A202, the A215 becomes Denmark Hill, originally known as Dulwich Hill, after passing Herne Hill railway station the road becomes Norwood Road, Knights Hill, and then Beulah Hill at its crossroads with the A214. Beulah Hill was the site of Britains first independent television transmitter, descending towards South Norwood the A215 becomes South Norwood Hill and then Portland Road, just after crossing the A213. A short section starting at the junction with Woodside Green is known as Spring Lane, leading to Shirley Road, the A215 was Britains most crash-prone A-road between 1999-2010, having had 2,836 crashes over its 10 mile length. At its northernmost point at Elephant & Castle in Newington, the A215 begins as Walworth Road and it runs through Walworth and is the major shopping street of the area. East Street Market is especially busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, other attractions include the Cuming Museum, Newington Reference Library and John Smith House, a former Labour Party headquarters which is now used by the local education authority. Charles Babbage, the Victorian mathematician and computer pioneer, was born at 44 Crosby Row, now Larcom Street. A commemorative blue plaque is displayed on the Sexual Health Clinic at the junction of Larcom Street, just off the Walworth Road was Walworth Road railway station on the London, Chatham and Dover Railway that was opened in 1863 and shut in 1916 due to wartime constraints. Walworth Road transitions into Camberwell Road where the A215 enters the former Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, the road runs adjacent to the railway between Elephant & Castle tube station and Loughborough Junction railway station. Much of Camberwell Road is an area, due to its well preserved large houses from the early 19th century. By the time of the Domesday Book, Camberwell was already a significant settlement, the town remained a popular resort for Londoners due to its believed medicinal wells. In 1685, John Evelyns Diary mentions a Roman urn filled with bones which was uncovered intact during repairs to the road, Camberwell Green, at the junction of Camberwell Road and Camberwell Church Street, was the traditional site of Camberwell Fair, an annual fair held every August. Following complaints about the noise and high crime levels generated by the fair, in Victorian times Camberwell Road was a focal point of South Londons Music hall scene, with a number of music halls opening from the 1850s onwards. Following the advent of the cinema and later of television, the halls fell into decline. Nearby Orpheus Street marks the site of the Metropole Music Hall, since the New Works Programme of the 1930s, London Transport and its successors have planned to extend the Bakerloo line south to a station on Camberwell Road. The original plans were abandoned due to the war before much construction had been completed, construction again began in the 1950s and 1970s, but was abandoned each time. Transport for London still intend to build this extension but no date has been set for this, after the A215 crosses the A202 it becomes Denmark Hill

2.
London Borough of Southwark
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The London Borough of Southwark /ˈsʌðərk/ in south London, England forms part of Inner London and is connected by bridges across the River Thames to the City of London. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London Government Act 1963, all districts of the area are within the London postal district. It is governed by Southwark London Borough Council, Dulwich is home to the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Imperial War Museum is in Elephant and Castle. The area was first settled in the Roman period but the name Southwark dates from the 9th century, the London Borough of Southwark was formed in 1965 from the former area of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark, the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell, and the Metropolitan Borough of Bermondsey. The borough borders the City of London and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets to the north, the London Borough of Lambeth to the west, to the south are the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Croydon. At the 2001 census Southwark had a population of 244,866, Southwark is ethnically 63% white, 16% black African and 8% black Caribbean. The area is the home of many Nigerian, Jamaican, South African, Polish, Tower Bridge, the Millennium Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge, Southwark Bridge and London Bridge all connect the City of London to the borough. The skyscraper Shard London Bridge is currently the tallest building in the EU, the Tate Modern art gallery, Shakespeares Globe Theatre, the Imperial War Museum and Borough Market are also within the borough. At one mile wide, Burgess Park is Southwarks largest green space, Southwark has many notable places of Christian worship, Anglican, Roman Catholic and independent non-conformist. These include Charles Spurgeons Metropolitan Tabernacle, Southwark Cathedral, St Georges Cathedral, Londons Norwegian Church and Finnish Church and the Swedish Seamens Church are all in Rotherhithe. St George the Martyr is the oldest church in Greater London dedicated to Englands Patron Saint, the other redundant church is Francis Bedfords in Trinity Church Square, now a recording studio, Henry Wood Hall. Whilst Christianity is the dominant religion of the borough, several religious minorities are also active, according to the 2001 Census, approximately 28% of Southwark identified as non-religious, or chose not to state their faith. Charles Dickens set several of his novels in the old borough where he lived as a young man, the site of The Tabard inn, the White Hart inn and the George Inn which survives. The rebuilt Globe Theatre and its exhibition on the Bankside remind us of the areas being the birthplace of classical theatre, there is also the remains of the Rose Theatre. In 2007 the Unicorn Theatre for Children was opened on Tooley Street with both the Southwark Playhouse and the Union Theatre having premises in Bermondsey Street, the Menier Chocolate Factory combines a theatre and exhibition space. The Bankside Gallery is the headquarters of the Royal Watercolour Society, the Golden Hinde replica is at St Mary Overie Dock and nearby are the remains of the medieval Winchester Palace which is a scheduled ancient monument. Peckham Library, designed by Will Alsop won the Stirling Prize for modern architecture, the museum was closed by Southwark council in 2008. MOCA, London, as curated by the artist Michael Petry, is a museum located in Peckham Rye dedicated to exposing and showcasing new cutting-edge artists

3.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

4.
England
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England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west, the Irish Sea lies northwest of England and the Celtic Sea lies to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east, the country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain in its centre and south, and includes over 100 smaller islands such as the Isles of Scilly, and the Isle of Wight. England became a state in the 10th century, and since the Age of Discovery. The Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century England, transforming its society into the worlds first industrialised nation, Englands terrain mostly comprises low hills and plains, especially in central and southern England. However, there are uplands in the north and in the southwest, the capital is London, which is the largest metropolitan area in both the United Kingdom and the European Union. In 1801, Great Britain was united with the Kingdom of Ireland through another Act of Union to become the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922 the Irish Free State seceded from the United Kingdom, leading to the latter being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the name England is derived from the Old English name Englaland, which means land of the Angles. The Angles were one of the Germanic tribes that settled in Great Britain during the Early Middle Ages, the Angles came from the Angeln peninsula in the Bay of Kiel area of the Baltic Sea. The earliest recorded use of the term, as Engla londe, is in the ninth century translation into Old English of Bedes Ecclesiastical History of the English People. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, its spelling was first used in 1538. The earliest attested reference to the Angles occurs in the 1st-century work by Tacitus, Germania, the etymology of the tribal name itself is disputed by scholars, it has been suggested that it derives from the shape of the Angeln peninsula, an angular shape. An alternative name for England is Albion, the name Albion originally referred to the entire island of Great Britain. The nominally earliest record of the name appears in the Aristotelian Corpus, specifically the 4th century BC De Mundo, in it are two very large islands called Britannia, these are Albion and Ierne. But modern scholarly consensus ascribes De Mundo not to Aristotle but to Pseudo-Aristotle, the word Albion or insula Albionum has two possible origins. Albion is now applied to England in a poetic capacity. Another romantic name for England is Loegria, related to the Welsh word for England, Lloegr, the earliest known evidence of human presence in the area now known as England was that of Homo antecessor, dating to approximately 780,000 years ago. The oldest proto-human bones discovered in England date from 500,000 years ago, Modern humans are known to have inhabited the area during the Upper Paleolithic period, though permanent settlements were only established within the last 6,000 years

5.
Natural history
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Natural history is the research and study of organisms including animals, fungi and plants in their environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. It encompasses scientific research but is not limited to it, with articles nowadays more often published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the sciences, natural history is the systematic study of any category of natural objects or organisms. That is a broad designation in a world filled with many narrowly focused disciplines. For example, geobiology has a strong multi-disciplinary nature combining scientists, a person who studies natural history is known as a naturalist or natural historian. The English term natural history is a translation of the Latin historia naturalis and its meaning has narrowed progressively with time, while the meaning of the related term nature has widened. In antiquity, it covered essentially anything connected with nature or which used materials drawn from nature. For example, Pliny the Elders encyclopedia of this title, published circa 77 to 79 AD, covers astronomy, geography, man and his technology, medicine and superstition as well as animals and plants. Medieval European academics considered knowledge to have two divisions, the humanities and divinity, with science studied largely through texts rather than observation or experiment. In modern terms, natural philosophy roughly corresponded to modern physics and chemistry, natural history had been encouraged by practical motives, such as Linnaeus aspiration to improve the economic condition of Sweden. Similarly, the Industrial Revolution prompted the development of geology to help find useful mineral deposits, the astronomer, William Herschel was also a natural historian. Instead of working with plants or minerals he worked with the stars and he spent his time building telescopes to see the stars and the rest of the time watching the stars. In the beginning, he believed there to be a known as a nebulae. Herschel can be considered a natural historian because he observed the natural world, in the process he made charts of all the stars and kept records of all that he saw. S. Wilcove and T. Eisner, The close observation of organisms—their origins, their evolution, their behavior and it encompasses changes in internal states insofar as they pertain to what organisms do. Some definitions go further, focusing on observation of organisms in their environment. Bartholomew, A student of history, or a naturalist, studies the world by observing plants. A common thread in many definitions of natural history is the inclusion of a component, as seen in a recent definition by H. W. Greene

6.
Archaeology
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Archaeology, or archeology, is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, Archaeology can be considered both a social science and a branch of the humanities. In North America, archaeology is considered a sub-field of anthropology, archaeologists study human prehistory and history, from the development of the first stone tools at Lomekwi in East Africa 3.3 million years ago up until recent decades. Archaeology as a field is distinct from the discipline of palaeontology, Archaeology is particularly important for learning about prehistoric societies, for whom there may be no written records to study. Prehistory includes over 99% of the human past, from the Paleolithic until the advent of literacy in societies across the world, Archaeology has various goals, which range from understanding culture history to reconstructing past lifeways to documenting and explaining changes in human societies through time. The discipline involves surveying, excavation and eventually analysis of data collected to learn more about the past, in broad scope, archaeology relies on cross-disciplinary research. Archaeology developed out of antiquarianism in Europe during the 19th century, Archaeology has been used by nation-states to create particular visions of the past. Nonetheless, today, archaeologists face many problems, such as dealing with pseudoarchaeology, the looting of artifacts, a lack of public interest, the science of archaeology grew out of the older multi-disciplinary study known as antiquarianism. Antiquarians studied history with attention to ancient artifacts and manuscripts. Tentative steps towards the systematization of archaeology as a science took place during the Enlightenment era in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, in Europe, philosophical interest in the remains of Greco-Roman civilization and the rediscovery of classical culture began in the late Middle Age. Antiquarians, including John Leland and William Camden, conducted surveys of the English countryside, one of the first sites to undergo archaeological excavation was Stonehenge and other megalithic monuments in England. John Aubrey was a pioneer archaeologist who recorded numerous megalithic and other monuments in southern England. He was also ahead of his time in the analysis of his findings and he attempted to chart the chronological stylistic evolution of handwriting, medieval architecture, costume, and shield-shapes. Excavations were also carried out in the ancient towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum and these excavations began in 1748 in Pompeii, while in Herculaneum they began in 1738. The discovery of entire towns, complete with utensils and even human shapes, however, prior to the development of modern techniques, excavations tended to be haphazard, the importance of concepts such as stratification and context were overlooked. The father of archaeological excavation was William Cunnington and he undertook excavations in Wiltshire from around 1798, funded by Sir Richard Colt Hoare. Cunnington made meticulous recordings of neolithic and Bronze Age barrows, one of the major achievements of 19th century archaeology was the development of stratigraphy. The idea of overlapping strata tracing back to successive periods was borrowed from the new geological and paleontological work of scholars like William Smith, James Hutton, the application of stratigraphy to archaeology first took place with the excavations of prehistorical and Bronze Age sites

7.
Ethnology
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Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationship between them. The term ethnologia is credited to Adam Franz Kollár who used and defined it in his Historiae ivrisqve pvblici Regni Vngariae amoenitates published in Vienna in 1783, the distinction between the three terms is increasingly blurry. Ethnology has been considered a field since the late 18th century especially in Europe and is sometimes conceived of as any comparative study of human groups. The 15th-century exploration of America by European explorers had an important role in formulating new notions of the Occidental, such as and this term was used in conjunction with savages, which was either seen as a brutal barbarian, or alternatively, as noble savage. Thus, civilization was opposed in a dualist manner to barbary, lévi-Strauss often referred to Montaignes essay on cannibalism as an early example of ethnology. Lévi-Strauss aimed, through a method, at discovering universal invariants in human society. However, the claims of such cultural universalism have been criticized by various 19th and 20th century social thinkers, including Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault, Derrida, Althusser, list of scholars of ethnology Forster, Johann Georg Adam. Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty’s Sloop, Resolution, Commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the Years 1772,3,4, the Elementary Structures of Kinship, Structural Anthropology Mauss, Marcel. Originally published as Essai sur le don, forme et raison de léchange dans les sociétés archaïques in 1925, this classic text on gift economy appears in the English edition as The Gift, The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies. Akwe-Shavante society, The Politics of Ethnicity, Indigenous Peoples in Latin American States, problemi generali delletnologia europea, La Ricerca Folklorica, No. Webpage History of German Anthropology/Ethnology 1945/49-1990 Languages describes the languages and ethnic groups found worldwide, national Museum of Ethnology - Osaka, Japan Texts on Wikisource, Rhyn, G. A. F. Van

8.
Charles Babbage
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Charles Babbage KH FRS was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage is best remembered for originating the concept of a programmable computer. His varied work in other fields has led him to be described as pre-eminent among the many polymaths of his century, parts of Babbages uncompleted mechanisms are on display in the Science Museum in London. In 1991, a perfectly functioning difference engine was constructed from Babbages original plans, built to tolerances achievable in the 19th century, the success of the finished engine indicated that Babbages machine would have worked. Babbages birthplace is disputed, but according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography he was most likely born at 44 Crosby Row, Walworth Road, London, a blue plaque on the junction of Larcom Street and Walworth Road commemorates the event. His date of birth was given in his obituary in The Times as 26 December 1792, the parish register of St. Marys Newington, London, shows that Babbage was baptised on 6 January 1792, supporting a birth year of 1791. Babbage was one of four children of Benjamin Babbage and Betsy Plumleigh Teape and his father was a banking partner of William Praed in founding Praeds & Co. of Fleet Street, London, in 1801. In 1808, the Babbage family moved into the old Rowdens house in East Teignmouth, around the age of eight, Babbage was sent to a country school in Alphington near Exeter to recover from a life-threatening fever. For a short time he attended King Edward VI Grammar School in Totnes, South Devon, Babbage then joined the 30-student Holmwood academy, in Baker Street, Enfield, Middlesex, under the Reverend Stephen Freeman. The academy had a library that prompted Babbages love of mathematics and he studied with two more private tutors after leaving the academy. The first was a clergyman near Cambridge, through him Babbage encountered Charles Simeon and his evangelical followers and he was brought home, to study at the Totnes school, this was at age 16 or 17. The second was an Oxford tutor, under whom Babbage reached a level in Classics sufficient to be accepted by Cambridge, Babbage arrived at Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 1810. He was already self-taught in some parts of mathematics, he had read in Robert Woodhouse, Joseph Louis Lagrange. As a result, he was disappointed in the standard mathematical instruction available at the university, Babbage, John Herschel, George Peacock, and several other friends formed the Analytical Society in 1812, they were also close to Edward Ryan. In 1812 Babbage transferred to Peterhouse, Cambridge and he was the top mathematician there, but did not graduate with honours. He instead received a degree without examination in 1814 and he had defended a thesis that was considered blasphemous in the preliminary public disputation, but it is not known whether this fact is related to his not sitting the examination. Considering his reputation, Babbage quickly made progress and he lectured to the Royal Institution on astronomy in 1815, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. After graduation, on the hand, he applied for positions unsuccessfully

9.
Victorian era
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The Victorian era was the period of Queen Victorias reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities. Some scholars date the beginning of the period in terms of sensibilities, the era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardian period. The later half of the Victorian age roughly coincided with the first part of the Belle Époque era of continental Europe, culturally there was a transition away from the rationalism of the Georgian period and toward romanticism and mysticism with regard to religion, social values, and arts. The end of the saw the Boer War. Domestically, the agenda was increasingly liberal with a number of shifts in the direction of political reform, industrial reform. Two especially important figures in period of British history are the prime ministers Benjamin Disraeli and William Gladstone. Disraeli, favoured by the queen, was a gregarious Conservative and his rival Gladstone, a Liberal distrusted by the Queen, served more terms and oversaw much of the overall legislative development of the era. The population of England and Wales almost doubled from 16.8 million in 1851 to 30.5 million in 1901, Scotlands population also rose rapidly, from 2.8 million in 1851 to 4.4 million in 1901. However, Irelands population decreased sharply, from 8.2 million in 1841 to less than 4.5 million in 1901, mostly due to the Great Famine. Between 1837 and 1901 about 15 million emigrants departed the UK permanently, in search of a life in the United States, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia. During the early part of the era, politics in the House of Commons involved battles between the two parties, the Whigs/Liberals and the Conservatives. These parties were led by such prominent statesmen as Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Derby, Lord Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli, Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was mainly a time of peace, Britain reached the zenith of its economic, political, diplomatic and cultural power. The era saw the expansion of the second British Empire, Historians have characterised the mid-Victorian era as Britains Golden Years. There was prosperity, as the income per person grew by half. There was peace abroad, and social peace at home, opposition to the new order melted away, says Porter. The Chartist movement peaked as a movement among the working class in 1848, its leaders moved to other pursuits, such as trade unions

10.
Blue plaque
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The brainchild of British politician William Ewart in 1863, it is the oldest such scheme in the world. The worlds first blue plaques were erected in London in the 19th century to mark the homes and workplaces of famous people. This scheme continues to the present day, having been administered successively by the Society of Arts, the London County Council, the Greater London Council, many other plaque schemes have since been initiated in the United Kingdom. Some are restricted to a geographical area, others to a particular theme of historical commemoration. The plaques erected by these schemes are manufactured in a variety of designs, shapes, materials, the term blue plaque may be used narrowly to refer to the official English Heritage scheme, but is often used informally to encompass all similar schemes. There are also commemorative plaque schemes throughout the world such as those in Paris, Rome, Oslo, Dublin, and in cities in Australia, Canada, Russia. The forms these take vary, and they tend to be known as historical markers, the original blue plaque scheme was established by the Society of Arts in 1867, and since 1986 has been run by English Heritage. It is the oldest such scheme in the world, since 1984 English Heritage have commissioned Frank Ashworth to make the plaques which have then been inscribed by his wife, Sue, at their home in Cornwall. English Heritage plans to erect an average of twelve new blue plaques each year in London. After being conceived by politician William Ewart in 1863, the scheme was initiated in 1866 by Ewart, Henry Cole and the Society of Arts, the first plaque was unveiled in 1867 to commemorate Lord Byron at his birthplace,24 Holles Street, Cavendish Square. This house was demolished in 1889, the earliest blue plaque to survive, also put up in 1867, commemorates Napoleon III in King Street, St Jamess. Byron’s plaque was blue, but the colour was changed by the manufacturer Minton, in total the Society of Arts put up 35 plaques, fewer than half of which survive today. The Society only erected one plaque within the square-mile of the City of London, in 1879, it was agreed that the City of London Corporation would be responsible for erecting plaques within the City to recognise its jurisdictional independence. This demarcation has remained ever since, in 1901, the Society of Arts scheme was taken over by the London County Council, which gave much thought to the future design of the plaques. It was eventually decided to keep the shape and design of the Societys plaques, but to make them uniformly blue, with a laurel wreath. Though this design was used consistently from 1903 to 1938, some experimentation occurred in the 1920s, in 1921, the most common plaque design was revised, as it was discovered that glazed ceramic Doulton ware was cheaper than the encaustic formerly used. In 1938, a new design was prepared by an unnamed student at the LCCs Central School of Arts and Crafts and was approved by the committee. It omitted the decorative elements of earlier designs, and allowed for lettering to be better spaced and enlarged

11.
Bermondsey
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Bermondsey is a district in south London, and a part of the London Borough of Southwark. Thus Bermondsey need not have been an island as such in the Anglo-Saxon period, Bermondsey appears in Domesday Book as Bermundesy and Bermundesye. It was then held by King William, though a part was in the hands of Robert, Count of Mortain, the kings half brother. Its Domesday assets were recorded as including 13 hides, a new and handsome church,5 ploughs,20 acres of meadow and it also included interests in London, in respect of which 13 burgesses paid 44d. The church mentioned in Domesday Book was presumably the nascent Bermondsey Abbey, which was founded as a Cluniac priory in 1082, monks from the abbey began the development of the area, cultivating the land and embanking the riverside. They turned an adjacent tidal inlet at the mouth of the River Neckinger into a dock, but Bermondsey then was little more than a high street ribbon, leading from the southern bank of the Thames, at Tooley Street, up to the abbey close. The Knights Templar also owned land here and gave their names to one of the most distinctive streets in London, King Edward III built a manor house close to the Thames in Bermondsey in 1353. The excavated foundations are visible next to Bermondsey Wall East close to the famous Angel public house, as it developed over the centuries, Bermondsey underwent some striking changes. A pleasure garden was founded there in the 17th century, commemorated by the Cherry Garden Pier, Samuel Pepys visited Jamaica House at Cherry Gardens in 1664 and recorded in his diary that he had left it singing finely. Though not many survive from this era, one notable exception is the church of St Mary Magdalen in Bermondsey Street. This church came through both 19th-century redevelopment and The Blitz unscathed and it is not just an unusual survivor for Bermondsey, buildings of this era are relative rarities in Inner London in general. A new church was built for the population of the area. It was from the Bermondsey riverside that the painter J. M. W, turner executed his famous painting of The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up, depicting the veteran warship being towed to Rotherhithe to be scrapped. By the mid-19th century parts of Bermondsey, especially along the riverside had become a notorious slum — with the arrival of industrial plants, docks, the area around St Saviours Dock, known as Jacobs Island, was one of the worst in London. Dickens provides a description of what it was like. Bermondsey Town Hall was built on Spa Road in 1881 but Blitzed in 1941, the area was extensively redeveloped during the 19th century and early 20th century with the expansion of the river trade and the arrival of the railways. Londons first passenger railway terminus was built by the London to Greenwich Railway in 1836 at London Bridge, the first section to be used was between the Spa Road Station and Deptford High Street. This local station had closed by 1915, the industrial boom of the 19th century was an extension of Bermondseys manufacturing role in earlier eras

12.
Crystal Palace, London
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Crystal Palace is a residential area in South London, England, within the London Boroughs of Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham, and Southwark. It is named after the local landmark, the Crystal Palace. The area is located eight miles south east of Charing Cross and includes one of the highest points in London, at 367 feet. It is contiguous with Anerley, Dulwich Wood, Gipsy Hill, Penge, South Norwood, Sydenham, the district was a natural oak forest until development began in the 19th century, and before the arrival of the Crystal Palace the area was known as Sydenham Hill. The Norwood Ridge and an oak tree were used to mark parish boundaries. Today, the area is represented by three different parliamentary constituencies, four London Assembly constituencies and fourteen local authority councillors, Crystal Palace Park has also been the setting for a number of concerts and films, including scenes from The Italian Job and The Pleasure Garden. Two television transmitter masts make the district a landmark location, visible from parts of Greater London. A pneumatic railway was briefly trialled in the area in 1864, after the palace was destroyed by fire, and with railway travel declining in the UK more generally, passenger numbers fell and the high level station was closed in 1954 and demolished 7 years later. Rail services gradually declined, and for a period in the 1960s and 1970s there were plans to construct a motorway through the area as part of the London Ringways plan. In 2016, Crystal Palace was named as one of the best places to live in London, the ridge and the historic oak tree known as The Vicars Oak were used to mark parish boundaries. This has led to the Crystal Palace area straddling the boundaries of five London Boroughs, Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Southwark, the area also straddles three postcode districts, SE19, SE20, and SE26. The ancient boundary between Surrey and Kent passes through the area and from 1889 to 1965 the area lay on the eastern boundary of the County of London. It included parts of Kent and Surrey until 1889 and then parts of Kent, London and Surrey between 1889 and 1965. For centuries the area was occupied by the Great North Wood, the forest was a popular area for Londoners recreation right up to the 19th century, when it began to be built over. It was also a home of Gypsies, with local street names. The area still retains vestiges of woodland, the third quarter of the 19th Century brought the Crystal Palace and the railways. The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. Following the success of the exhibition, the palace was moved and reconstructed in 1854 in a modified and enlarged form in the grounds of the Penge Place estate at Sydenham Hill

London Borough of Southwark Blue Plaque awarded to famous motorbike designer Edward Turner unveiled in 2009 at his former residence, 8 Philip Walk, Peckham. Turner had run a motorbike shop, Chepstow Motors on Peckham High Street.